June Update – July 10, 2012
Happy Summer Time from the Home of Hope – GongYi, China
Duo Xie, Duo Xie – (Thank You, Thank You) for your support this last month! We appreciate you and your faithfulness in supporting the work here in China.
This year, due to the rapidly increasing cost of food in China, we have started looking at our garden more like a working farm than just a hobby and teaching tool for the children as we have in years past.
We have instructed the staff to utilize every inch of unused ground that is on our property to grow some type of food for the kitchen to use.
In the pictures above you can see our Corn, Sweet Potatoes and Sun Flowers area which is across the road from our gate (right) but still part of our land. Toward the back of the corn where the row of trees starts is a steep incline… almost a sheer cliff… that drops down into the village at the back of the last row of houses in the village.
On the left you can see how we are crowding our front wall even planting on the slope down toward the road. This lot of peanuts goes all the way to the corner of our wall and then turns to the left running another 300 meters along our West wall. Our goal is to be able to cut back on the amount of fresh vegetables we have to buy from the market all during this summer and fall season.
We also have green beans, (super long ones) cabbage, potatoes, squash, lettuce and Hollow Green Vegetables which is very Chinese.
Of course gardening, despite it’s necessity, is not the only thing that must be done now that summer is here. In the picture to the right, Mathew, one of our older children, is cleaning and checking our fire extinguishers. Next, most of these will need to be taken to town to be serviced, filled, inspected and tagged or replaced (depending on their condition) for 2012.
We also need to replace our four long fire hoses every two years and this year they are due. We need $500.00 to cover the cost of making our fire system totally current. If you would like to contribute you can do so on our top left menu item, “Donate Now”
We are also doing a lot of “yard work†getting ready for our annual youth camp which will start July 27th.
Above left, Mathew is mowing the side yard and right is Mitchie and Larry cleaning up behind the mower and trimmer. All the children pitch in to do the yard work. It is really neat they way they get it done!
Luke’s turn using the weed eater and on the right, little Beau is putting the trash into the Chinese wheel barrow. In the background (behind Luke) you can see good representation of the poor quality of materials we have to work with. Those walls were just stripped, re-plastered and painted last year. Now it needs to be done again. This is a project we will start on when the Summer camp is over. If you can contribute, please do!
Of course Summer doesn’t come without it’s downside on occasion. Here little Enoch got stung by a wasp and he really suffered with this. You can see how his little hand is swollen (along with the red finger nails… the Chinese love to do this… either gender… using a certain flower that grows this time of year.)
We need to raise $1,000.00 for the youth camp. Both XuZhou and PingYu Home of Hope’s children will be coming so we need your help in this effort. We also expect some local “non†Home of Hope children to attend this year which will be a great out reach.
Again, Thank You for caring for the less fortunate children of China and for your continued support of the Home of Hope Orphanages.
Blessings!